Several Greek companies of major commercial interests in Egypt closely follow the developments in the Arab country in view of the protests which started last week. Egypt takes about one percent of Greek exports annually and is ranked 24th among the countries importing Greek products. The National Bank of Greece, Piraeus Bank, the cement manufacturing company Titan and many other Greek companies have significant presence on the Egyptian market and monitor the development of the current situation.

"The situation has not affected us yet but we are seriously concerned about the developments and monitor them very carefully," said Spiros Ksenos, Corporate Communications Manager of the cement giant Titan, cited by capital.gr. He stressed that Greek-Egyptian relations had always been very close and he did not believe for now that Greek companies would be seriously affected by the riots. Titan has built two cement plants, its sales reached 272 million euros and the operating profit was 102 million euros, according to Imerisia.

Spiros Ksenos stressed that social conflicts were not a danger to the cement industry unless they grew into nationwide revolt. "Then we will surely face serious danger," he said.

Piraeus Bank which has a total of 48 branches in Egypt and holds 1.6 percent of the banking market in the country keeps calm. Hrisant Bermati who is in charge of investor relations commented that the development of political problems did not affect the work of the bank branches to date in any way. They are concentrated mainly in and around Cairo and Alexandria. Piraeus Bank has total assets of 56.6 million euros in Egypt and the bank analyst Panagiotis Kladis said to the Greek edition he didn’t see scenario in which the bank could lose its investments in Egypt.

The Vardinoyannis’ corporate group also shows no signs of concern although it has serious interests in the production and marketing of fuels in and outside Egypt. According to the Greek Proto Thema, the corporation is directly related to the energy giants Gaz de France and Shell and has a contract for oil imports in Greece, dealing directly with the state.

The total amount of Greek capital invested in Egypt is about 800 million euros. The main target sectors are food industry, construction, cement production, fuel, aluminum production, banking, maritime and air transport. Greek exports to Egypt amounted to 115 million euros for the period January-October 2010. Imports from Egypt for the same period amounted to 138 million euros and the main groups of commodities were petroleum products, fertilizers, iron and steel.

Some of the largest Greek companies on the Egyptian market are: Titan – production of cement, Trakia – paper production, Alumil – aluminum production, Isomat and Kotali for building materials, Arhirodon – leader in port construction, Chipita – producer of foodstuffs and snacks, Mellon Technologies – production of IT products, the state owned Greek Petrol, Intralot-Intracom – gaming technologies developer, Piraeus Bank and the National Bank of Greece, Olympic and Aegean airlines and others.

GRReporter’s content is brought to you for free 7 days a week by a team of highly professional journalists, translators, photographers, operators, software developers, designers. If you like and follow our work, consider whether you could support us financially with an amount at your choice.